Red Raider Road Race-My First 10k

As evidenced in previous posts, I was dreading this thing! I'm so glad I invited so many people to do this because otherwise I may have backed out. Our friends Christine and David, my sister, sister in law (Jenn), little brother and his wife (Amber), and my sister's friends, Christina, David, and Stephanie all ran.

We arrived at the race early to get our race bibs and warm up. It was a fun atmosphere since so many family members were there. I was really nervous. Jonathan decided he would run with me and encourage me and not run his own race--very sweet. I felt great the first two miles. My knee and shins have been hurting me a bit, but I had no problem with them at the start. That was encouraging. It was overcast and a little humid, but otherwise the weather was great.

We passed the first two mile markers and when the time was called, I was pleased because we were right around a 10:00 pace. I walked through the water stop at mile 2 and got water again at mile 3. It was a 2 loop course which I really didn't like because I was very tempted to turn and finish with the 5k runners instead of taking another loop! We completed the 5k in 31:30 so I was aware that I wouldn't meet the 1:00:"something" goal, but I was feeling great about the pace so far. In mile 4, I started to get discouraged, and my knee started hurting. A whole other loop? I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace. I walked for 30 seconds in mile 4 and engaged in some negative self talk (bad habit of mine). I was really getting ticked because I told myself to just make it to the next water stop which was supposed to be at mile 5, but it wasn't. In retrospect, it wasn't too far from mile 5, but I was completely irritated because I was counting on walking through the water stop at exactly mile 5. When I finally got to the water stop, I did get water and walk through the stop. After this, I was still tired, but felt rejuvenated knowing I only had a little over a mile left. My time was 51:"something" at mile 5 which motivated because I knew if I picked it up, I could finish in a "decent" time. At mile 6, I tried to really push it to the finish. I crossed at 1:03:45, and Jonathan at 1:03:46 (he let me cross first which was really sweet).





While I didn't meet my "perfect circumstance goal", I ended with a 10:15 pace which I'm really happy with, and beat my "pleased with it" goal. I really feel like I pushed myself, and I know I didn't have enough in me to meet a 1:00:"something" goal. Incidentally, my time did earn me a last place finish in my age group (sniffle, sniffle).

I felt pretty miserable during the second half and after the race which leads me to 2 thoughts--1. I didn't leave a lot on the table which I'm proud about. 2. I have no idea how I'm going to double that distance in 3 weeks.

I do take a little comfort in knowing I was really nervous and dreading the race and succeeded so hopefully I will succeed in the half despite my nerves and dread right now. I know I can cover the distance; it's just these self imposed time limits that make me dread the races so much--fear of "failure" I guess! I've got to work on redefining success/failure in races.

We stayed with my little brother and his wife and son over the weekend. All my siblings and their broods were in town which made for a fun weekend. See our fun here: